New Events

International

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Promoting Human Rights in Ireland

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link If There Really is a ?Black Hole? in Britain?s Finances, the Cause is the Tories? Mismanagement of t... Sun Dec 29, 2024 07:00 | James Alexander
Whether the "black hole" Rachel Reeves claims to have identified was ?22 billion or ?40 billion, it pales into insignificance next to the billions we spunked up against the wall to "manage" the pandemic.
The post If There Really is a ?Black Hole? in Britain?s Finances, the Cause is the Tories? Mismanagement of the Pandemic, Not the Economy appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Sun Dec 29, 2024 00:40 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Bridget Phillipson Tried to Pull the Plug on New Free Speech Law Days After Election Sat Dec 28, 2024 19:00 | Toby Young
Court documents obtained by the Telegraph show that Bridget Phillipson tried to pull the plug on the Freedom of Speech Act as one of her first acts as Education Secretary.
The post Bridget Phillipson Tried to Pull the Plug on New Free Speech Law Days After Election appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Britons Believe 2025 Will Be Worse Than 2024 in Blow for Starmer Sat Dec 28, 2024 17:00 | Richard Eldred
With over two-thirds of the public believing Labour will fail to tackle key issues like the small boats crisis and NHS waiting lists, Britons are bracing for 2025 to be even worse than 2024.
The post Britons Believe 2025 Will Be Worse Than 2024 in Blow for Starmer appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Councils Set to Slap Britons With On-the-Spot Fines for Climbing Trees in Parks Sat Dec 28, 2024 15:00 | Richard Eldred
Fears of a surge in revenue-driven fixed penalty notices loom, as Angela Rayner's new devolution plan could enable cash-strapped councils to impose fines on activities like tree-climbing.
The post Councils Set to Slap Britons With On-the-Spot Fines for Climbing Trees in Parks appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?113 Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:42 | en

offsite link Pentagon could create a second Kurdish state Fri Dec 20, 2024 10:31 | en

offsite link How Washington and Ankara Changed the Regime in Damascus , by Thierry Meyssan Tue Dec 17, 2024 06:58 | en

offsite link Statement by President Bashar al-Assad on the Circumstances Leading to his Depar... Mon Dec 16, 2024 13:26 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?112 Fri Dec 13, 2024 15:34 | en

Voltaire Network >>

"Politics and Showbusiness a deadly embrace" : Berlusconi's Lust

category international | politics / elections | other press author Tuesday May 05, 2009 17:15author by prurience Report this post to the editors

"with friends like that who needs enemies"

Irish readers might be missing a story whose soap-opera plotting and extraordinary comments are delighting the enemies of Berlusconi. The man who managed to bring the Vatican behind his new right wing alliance has just fallen foul of the RC newspaper who have published on their front page a stinging attack on the morality and behaviour of Silvio who only this weekend was accused of "cavorting with minors" by his estranged wife for attending an 18 year old birthday party depite never making it to his own childrens' 18th festivities.

Preaching from the pulpit they have called on Italian voters to express their unease at the urns.
he's looking for sympathy and privacy and relief from scandal.
he's looking for sympathy and privacy and relief from scandal.


It matters not if that 18 year old girl may be his illegitimate daughter, he has attempted to lay blame on a conspiracy of the left who wish to destabilise his EU election hopes. But then along came the bishops leaving so many on the left now to wonder will it be them who stick the dagger in the old beast's heart.

It now matters little that in an attempt to protect catholic prudery the man's regime have moved against sexually liberal licensing and publishing laws even going as far as repainting a nipple as a fluffy white cloud on the fresco which is visible as the backdrop to his press statements.

One is almost reminded of the publication earlier this year of the RC church's "gender analysis" of confessional transgresses, which revealed that of the 7 deadly sins, it is lust which grabs the boy and pride which hurts the girl. If the public are to judge, Mrs B deserves if not her pride, at least her dignity.

the text of the bishops' front page attack worthy of a prurient inquisition :
http://www.avvenire.it/Commenti/IL+CASO_200905050702114...0.htm

its coverage on the English right wing press http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/....html

author by not owned by Mr Bpublication date Wed May 06, 2009 13:08author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Last night Mr B went on telly (his telly) to face frank questions about photos leaked to a newspaper (his newspaper) which are part of an exclusive series to be published in a magazine (his magazine) which some people (not his people) say are quite clearly faked.

He decried a concerted media campaign in Italy which working in a conspiracy with the left (& no doubt Dan Brown) is aiming to besmirch rather than smooch him.

Here attached is the main image which is exciting "expert comments" such as :-

1. Mr Berlusconi looks suspiciously younger than he did in March and we know he hasn't had facial plastic surgery since 2004, you can look at the before and after pictures here http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=67887
& we also know what happened the last time he had liposuction ; a Swiss artist Gianni Motti.put the fat on display as a bar of soap. http://www.indymedia.ie/article/70276

2. The two women who are a mother and her 18 year old daughter purportedly celebrating that coming of age belong to one image whose lighting and shading are consistent, indeed the central woman's lighting and shading are not consistent with the left side of the image.

3) the left side of the image is where a youthful Mr B is seen holding a glass of babysham which though adjusted to the colour matrix of the woman in front of which it is "superimposed" has not been adjusted for brightness or contrast.

or at least that's how the Italian press (not owned by Berlusconi) and the Spanish press are seeing it.

The German Spiegel magazine in its English edition can bring you through it just as well as anyone (not owned by Mr B)

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,62298....html

who's your daddy?
who's your daddy?

author by babyshampublication date Wed May 06, 2009 13:43author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Wonderful little addition to the publicity campaign of virile, macho, studdish, manly, irrestible, goodnatured & misunderstood Mr Berlusconi has just come to light on youtube. Indeed, playing the sexy lothario may finally be backfiring on the sleezeball.

We can here the prime minister of Italy on his visit to the earthquake striken Abruzzo on the 25th of April, just about when he suggested victims think of themselves as being on a camping holiday.

He poses next to Mrs Giovanazzi Beltrami, 41 years with two kids and after putting his hand on her shoulder asks "Posso palpare un po' la signora?" This literally means "can I feel / fondle / caress / touch up / enjoy an erotic touch with the lady". Remember that just in case you go on holidays to Italy. For her part Mrs Beltrami admits that she felt disturbed and uncomfortable with both the gesture and comment but made no comment at the time as the priority was helping the survivors and searching for more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eiUvyeKVD0

Caption: Video Id: 1eiUvyeKVD0 Type: Youtube Video
youngsters should know the difference between good and bad touching.


author by babyshampublication date Sat May 09, 2009 23:30author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Rather than identifying or reflecting on that moment in contemporary politics when trophy sexual partners and supposedly out-dated images of alphamales, which I tried to explain at the time was the true way to understand the Sarkozy & Celia Bruni relationship, followed by the Aznar fatherhood of Rachel Dati's baby, by route of Hugo Chavez short rumoured fling with Naomi Campbell - the Irish Times just looks back at Sarko's divorce from the missus nobody remembers now.

It's a pity how they could get things so wrong and not even think of mentioning Celia, our current taoiseach's manboobs in art or how Garret FitzGerald was a gentleman.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2009/0509/1....html

However, we are missing the reality of Italian politics. Berlusconi has proposed a law to make being an illegal migrants a criminal offence - to be resisted by the president as the president resisted the Elena Enguara right to die case. & in the midst of it all, Mrs Berlusconi wrote an open letter.

We all know what open letters are, don't we?

So why do we continue to see in this the manouvres of a sleezebag playing to male fantasies and not respect the dignity of a woman who so formally broke her silence and spoke of her husband's cavorting with minors.

& that is the real issue. if it got a scolding from the Vatican, it probably deserves an Irish editorial too.

author by babycham - (iosaf)publication date Sun May 24, 2009 21:30author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The English Observer reports today how "La Repubblica" one of the few newspapers not controlled by Berlusconi has refused to let up on the story of Mr B and the little girl whose friendship with him obviously started before her 18th birthday, provoked an open letter from his estranged wife lamenting his consorting with minors and the suggestion from Umberto Eco that he ought be presented with a copy of Nabokov's "Lollita".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/24/silvio-berl...quiry

Repubblica is the sort of centre left newspaper that thinks it's liberal when it publishes articles from Clinton and Gore. But anway...

Today continuing with fine journalistic examination of the stories and inconsistencies, they fished out the ex-boyfriend of the little girl who Mr B has now gone on record as saying he knew through her parents, (complete with the dubious photo evidence above).

Gino Flaminio is adolescent, quite teenage as you can see from his photo, He started his relationship with Naomi in August 2007 when she was sweet sixteen and his poor little heart was broken last January 10th, 2009 when she told him where to go.

That was of course just after the prime minister of Italy and its principle billionaire, a man who is known to have bribed lawyers to ensure his immunity on corruption charges had seen photos of the 17 year old Naomi in a model portfolio she had sent out to various companies in Autumn 2008 some of which were owned by Mr B.

How did her snapshots happen to attract the eye of such an important and busy man - because surely he doesn't spend his time perusing such tittle tattle?

But see those photos, he did. & you know VIP's always can find people's phone numbers and contact details & just turn up at the schoolyard gates to serenade the beautiful. Accordingly Mr B met Naomi, according to her ex-boyfriend in October 2008.

she was 17 and half years old.

probably using fake tan too because the swimsuit glow would be wearing off by then. Of course Italians frown on topless beach women unlike their Spanish Mediterranean counterparts and accordingly sales of corrective fake tan are unusually high all year round...

links in English, Italian & Spanish

http://www.repubblica.it/2009/05/sezioni/politica/berlu....html
http://www.lavanguardia.es/gente-y-tv/noticias/20090524....html

If you want to meet pretty people or at least be on the fringes you can join a facebook group demanding Mr B answer the questions put to him as you can read in this English version link
http://temi.repubblica.it/repubblica-ten-questions-to-b...coni/

Mr Berlusconi saw his girlfriend's photos, liked what he saw & stole the girl seducing her with promises.
Mr Berlusconi saw his girlfriend's photos, liked what he saw & stole the girl seducing her with promises.

author by babychampublication date Mon May 25, 2009 16:10author address author phone Report this post to the editors

As now being reported on BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8067110.stm
and elsewhere the story is growing to scandalous proportions & now Mr B. or Papi as Naomi calls him has announced he will address parliament soon to clarify there's nothing negative in his relationship with the sweet normal slightly naive little girl. (That's how her ex-boyfriend describes her in this interview which is good for Italian language practise. Once you get past his appalling sense of fashion, premature pattern balding disguised as trendy sideburns and quite possibly plucked eyebrows, he really does better than simply a lover scorned routine but details a lengthy process which led from a 17 year old girl being contacted by a prime minister, through him offering her help with a career, to presenting her with a gold jewellery to attending her birthday party. We're not talking about a simple exercise of droit de seigneur This was it seems according to Gino's testimony a process of grooming which for several months he was astounded and flabergasted to see at relatively close quarter. For example, she got all excited once when they were in his car and Mr B phoned, "hello it's the president" [quite a pick-up line] & Noemi overcame Gino's incredulity by passing the phone over to him so he could hear the unmistakable dulcet tones of Mr B.) Soon afterwards she went away on holliers & she wasn't the same when she came back............. "airs & graces" indeed.
http://tv.repubblica.it/dossier/10-domande/papi-berlusc...video

& it quite broke his heart. La Repubblica have put together a vid of the love letters a pre-Mr B Noemi wrote her ragazzo in that unmistakable hand of a teenage girl on pretty notepaper with little mice decorating a christmas tree. The kind of stuff most women and men if they keep at all in later life, keep safely hidden away from view in that sentimental place where only the throbbing of young hearts is heard. You don't need to read Italian to get the visual point.
http://tv.repubblica.it/copertina/noemi-la-lettera-d-am...video

For those who don't understand Italian, here is a CNN interview given by Mr B this weekend, in Italian but dubbed to English as well in which he touches on migration, the divorce, his gaffes (he's never made one) & how he is a victim of the media (that little bit of it he doesn't already own) and how he really doesn't enjoy being prime minister anymore. He really is unctuous throughout.
http://tv.repubblica.it/copertina/berlusconi-alla-cnn/3...video

last link to the 10 question in English that the left want answered from Mr Berlusconi about his relationship with Noemi Letizia

Related Link: http://temi.repubblica.it/repubblica-ten-questions-to-berlusconi/
author by iosafpublication date Fri May 29, 2009 12:07author address author phone Report this post to the editors

First he asked the journalists had they come to ask him about underage girls, then he occupied that space in our delight & disgust which crosses demographics and ought have raised the little hairs on the back of our necks rather than knees long ago.

"Mussolini had a nucleus of blackshirts & I according to certain media have a nucleus of ballerinas, thank God it's a bit better". That's how Berlusconi began his address to cross party politicians on the issues which pruriently fascinate Europe and have provoked editorial or leading comment articles from the UK Independent and German Bild this week (which both concurred in the exact phrase that he is a danger for Italy). Those issues have ensured that the forthcoming EU parliamentary elections are so trivialised that they can only be a plebiscite for the Italian people :-

* do you approve of Papi & not give a shit?
* do you not approve of Papi and give a shit?
* do you not give a shit and can't even bring yourself to vote?

The leader of the opposition on Wednesday night asked Italians would they be comfortable with Mr B. raising their kids. Bingo - the Berlusconi brats came out on telly (his telly) and told the world they were laughing. Indeed they are laughing all the way to the bank as this back article explains Mr B. saw his daughter assume the directorship of his priniciple financial holding the Finzi empire in 2005 when its erstwhile puppet director Aldo Bonomo died. This naturally protected him more from accusations of conflict of interest c/f http://www.indymedia.ie/article/72314

But my favourite addition to the story which is almost a scandal came from a leader of the rightwing, Umberto Bossi, who declares the whole thing is a setup and attests politicians don't have time for sex & honestly Berlusconi has his years. Viagra exists certainly, but I don't believe in that kind of thing much

quite!
down with that sort of thing!

However, this is not the first time the word Viagra has been mentioned in connection to Mr. B or by Mr B. Allow me to bring you back in the archive once more :-

In mid March 2008, Mr B was offering advice to a young woman on a TV RAI Q&A session ("Punto di vista" on channel TG2 to be precise). The poor lady had no job & was feeling the pinch long may we note before the global crises. Mr B. suggested she marry one of his sons... & then on the same day he addressed the party "Pueblo de la Libertad" and told them to :-

"Speak to the people, priests, doctors, pharmacists. I have a very good relationship with the pharmacists and not because I buy Viagra."

That quip was of course exactly one month before the elections of 2008.

AT link the 10 questions in English which the Left want answered from Berlusconi I suggest adding an 11th - "Do you use Viagra or any Sexperformance related drug?

Is it a side effect of Viagra? Mr B. on Thursday talking about little girls
Is it a side effect of Viagra? Mr B. on Thursday talking about little girls

author by prurience (iosaf)publication date Sun May 31, 2009 16:41author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Nestling somewhere in the Italian rightwing press today's reports on descriptions from members of the Italian ruling classes utterly forgetable names of their parties with ice cream and beautiful girls for whom there are not enough soldiers to protect from rape, are the first reports of Mrs B.'s companions and a little agony aunt addition in the form of a letter from Gino, the ex-boyfriend whose photo is on this page. Look at him a moment doesn't matter if you didn't watch the vid. Just ask yourself what he has to look forward to. What age do you think he is? Did he take the virginity of sweet Noemi before her maidenhead was legally to be broken? He'll need a job someday most likely, if only not to feel stupid amongst his peers in the Milan richkid eurotrash scene. He certainly is doing anything about that hair. He will be a rugless lad until and through the accumulation of bags under his eyes and their subsequent discrete removal by plastic surgery. But meanwhile as in the meantime if not this past week, he will regardless of personel or family wealth confront the little chores of citizenship which are road blocks, police searches, and missing emails.

The English press make it all sound so tame :-

"The ex boyfriend of an 18-year-old woman at the heart of an alleged scandal involving Silvio Berlusconi has apologised for having fuelled speculation about a presumed relationship between her and Italy's prime minister. The Italian daily Corriere della Sera today ran what it said was a letter from Gino Flaminio, in which he said there never could have been a sexual relationship between Noemi Letizia and Berlusconi – "knowing Noemi and her values"."

_______(these people are worth so much money they even speak of relationships & ethics in terms of value, investment, owing etc. but never use the word "priceless".)

in English http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/31/noemi-letiz...ology
original in Italian
http://www.corriere.it/cronache/09_maggio_31/lettera_fl...shtml

author by Miguel Mora - El Pais on Sundaypublication date Sun Jun 07, 2009 03:18author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Dozens of official and private flights carry to Sardinia every weekend a cohort of beauties who entertain the head of the Italian government and his friends. Following the first lady's accusations and the Noemigate, Italy reveals to the world its air of lower empire. Will Berlusconi have to pay a price?

Endless gardens, artificial lakes, sexual organs on display, lesbian games, special effects, free pizza and ice cream... A geriatric rest home full of terrific bodies. The photographs censored in Italy following Silvio Berlusconi's initiative illustrate the uninhibited routine at the mansion the head of State owns on the Emerald Coast of Sardinia.

Monday June 1, the gardens of the Quirinal presidential palace, Day of the Republic: hundreds of the regime's grandees go up to greet the prime minister, hounded by the reactions to news of his friendship with Noemi Letizia, an 18 year old girl. Seventy percent of those distinguished personalities approach Mr Berlusconi with their daughters in tow, not their wives. Welcome to Berluscoland, the country where all young girls want to be veline (TV hostesses).

Let us now visit Villa Certosa, the mysterious Sardinian mansion property of the Milanese tycoon who is currently Prime Minister and rotating president of the G-8, as well as leader of the People of Freedom party, elected by show of hands. Since it was revealed that Noemi Letizia, the 18 year old young woman from Naples who calls Berlusconi "Papi", spent New Year's eve at the house along with 30 other veline (TV hostesses), all Italians fantasize with that name: Villa Certosa. The property is every mobster's dream, especially if he is under arrest: olive and palm trees, pools everywhere, free ice cream and pizza at will, artificial lakes, an amphitheater where the unavoidable Mariano Apicella, who has published two records with Berlusconi as song writer, plays and sings his Neapolitan songs...

The turquoise sea, the great main house, the secret chambers, the underground canal which directly connects the villa to the sea - inspired by a James Bond film - the 60 hectares park grounds, the bungalows the owner offers his female guests (always more girls than men, a ratio of four to one), all of it refurbished and renovated in 2006 for a cool 12 million Euros.

The villa even has, according to a very trustworthy source, an underground nuclear shelter, and the supplies are regularly restocked. And then there's the veline, the beauties who, perhaps, who knows, might one day characterize this bizarre period of History as Berlusconism-Velinism.

The beauty of the word velina (not to be confused with bellina) is as suggestive as its origin: the velina was the note sent to newspapers from the fascist censors' office, explaining what could and could not be written. This description as something out of context was applied, in time, to the TV hostesses who performed tasks beyond their decorative duties, next to the table where the journalist reads the news for instance. "The velina is here". It stuck, and has carried on to this day.

Even though it has always been a well known secret, Italy has had no moral qualms about living with the fact that Silvio Berlusconi has met, courted, invited, recommended, employed, helped and promoted hundreds of veline during his political career. The list is too long and anonymous to be printed here.

During a decade of visits, parties and short trips, almost all of these veline, and many more, would have logically stopped by Villa Certosa. The best bodies in Italy. The prettiest and most innocent faces. Aspiring models, actresses, cabaret stars, majorettes, hostesses. Very young girls, 17 and 18 to 28 and 29 years old, no more: butterflies freshly out of the family cocoon who have become part of the sheik's harem. When he welcomes them into his fold, according to Concita de Gregorio, editor of daily L'Unitá, "he gives them a jewel shaped like a butterfly, like a sort of contract or seal. It is the sultan's seal".

For the past 15 years, Berlusconi's show-politics, his personalistic and plebiscitary disposition, his fascination as a generous and womanizing tycoon, have seduced the Italian voting and TV-watching masses with his jokes, sexist style, blunders, social rise, electoral triumphs, even the victories and signings of his football team (this week he froze the announcement of Kaka's transfer until Monday so as not to lose a single vote).

All this is a natural part of his a-political and a-cultural baggage, of his open and mundane populism, paradoxically rooted in a traditionalist and Catholic non-political non-program, vaguely inspired on "God, Country and Family". "And veline", it should be added.

Villa Certosa is il Cavaliere's most discrete status symbol, his not just nuclear shelter. It is his treasure, his best kept secret, the place where this nearly 73 year old man, arrogant and millionaire, congenial and media friendly, hosts his male and female friends, leads informal cabinet meetings, closes or prepares business dealings and political feats, smothers with attentions the leaders of the right from all over the world, watches over his chrysalises, sits his veline on his knees and promenades them on golf carts around the park, a militarized and Top-Secret area since 2006.

As Antonello Zappadu's photographs tell, Villa Certosa is also the place where the megalomaniac magnate, the excessive, comical character and pathological liar, forgets that he is a grandfather (and that he left the conjugal bedroom a decade ago), and becomes a macho once again, the sheik of the harem, Super Silvio, permatanned and operated upon (on his prostate as well), while Italy whispers that he takes too much Viagra and his doctors fear for his heart.

Villa Certosa is also the place where his Neapolitan friend Noemi Letizia was invited, just after her eighteenth birthday, to spend the New-Year holiday along with 30 other colleagues and a dozen of Berlusconism's grandees, nearly all of them in their seventies like him: gerontocracy and spectacular girls.

As the philosopher Paolo Flores d'Arcais says, "The question is not what happens or has happened at Villa Certosa, but rather what would have happened in the United States if it had become public knowledge that Obama had spent his Christmas holidays with thirty 18 year old cabaret stars and without his wife, or in Germany if they found out that Angela Merkel goes on vacation with 30 hot gigolos".

What matters, in the case of these young Italian women, is fulfilling a dream, reaching a goal: meeting Silvio and his powerful friends, working in television and maybe making it into politics, which in the country of the RAI and Mediaset, controlled by one man, amounts to the same thing.

Many of these young women have tragically limited themselves to embodying their parents' model, the conformism of the disenchanted post-68 generation which fell into mediocrity in front of the tv set during the eighties and nineties, watching the Christian-Democrats dissolve, Bettino Craxi go into exile, how the once brilliant Italian left became an oligarchic, boring and distant caste after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Some might find this vision of the world and social rise repugnant; to others it will seem practical and human. But, what better way to succeed in this Italy of television than being very, very close to the great boss of European, and perhaps world television?

Berlusconi, wrote Eugenio Scalfari, is the Sun King. In the words of a Sardinian politician, "If you get close to the sun, the sun enlightens and warms you". And according to another master journalist, Giancarlo Santalmessi, who has suffered the wrath of the conservatives, "Half of Italy works for Berlusconi, the other half whishes they did".

Going to Villa Certosa guarantees these girls their place under the sun, a phone number they can call, maybe a recommendation from the emperor, a raised thumb, a casting to go to upon their return to Rome or Milan, on Sunday night or Monday morning, after the long and fun nights, talking politics with Silvio, walking, going shopping at the Porto Rotondo mall (Papi pays, up to 1.500 Euros per girl), dancing frantically, maybe stripping motivated by alcohol rather than money, machismo of the worst kind.

It is not easy to be among the chosen ones, to make it to the vestal of Villa Certosa, insists a Sardinian politician, who prefers to remain anonymous for security reasons: "Those who go there are important, those who sleep there are very important, and those who spend the holidays are in Caesar's heart".

Caesar, who started out in real estate, has seven other villas in Sardinia, another one in Antigua, countless mansions in Rome and Milan, but Villa Certosa is the measure of all things. Even cabinet ministers are divided between those who go very often (like the quiet Gianni Letta), and those who have only been there once or have only gone to attend a cabinet (or board) meeting during the holidays.

Among the female ministers, Mara Carfagna, minister for Equal Opportunities, has been there the most, and she has proved her loyalty, as she has been the only one who has dared to defend his actions during the grotesque Noemigate. In her opinion, the attacks on Berlusconi are baseless and motivated by envy, because he is a "good" person.

For the girls, the best way to enter is through the old man's expert eye. As in the case of Noemi Letizia, Carfagna herself and hundreds of other girls. Noemi, a sweet girl who grew up in the surroundings of the Neapolitan mafia, wanted to be an artist. So she made herself a portfolio and sent it to an agency in Rome. Emilio Fede, a journalist at Canale 4 and close friend of Berlusconi's, picked it up, carried it under his arm, and left it carelessly on the table. His capo picked up the phone and dialed the girl's mobile. He told her she had an angelical gaze and that she had to stay that way, pure.

That was in October, tells Gino, the construction worker who was Noemi's boyfriend until Papi came along, in an interview with La Repubblica. Soon afterwards, Noemi was seen at a fashion party held at Villa Madarma, and at another one organized by AC Milan. On both occasions she was seated at the presidential table. According to Berlusconi and her parents, it's an old friendship; Gino and one of Noemi's aunts have denied it.

Whatever the case, by December Noemi was already at Villa Certosa with her friend Roberta, one the three friends with whom she recorded a video now doing the rounds on Youtube where they declare themselves to be fantastic and out of reach. Although, if we think about it, it might have been before, because Noemi herself declared, when she started being well known, that she had seen Papi often, that he was so busy that he couldn't always make it to Naples, and that they sang Apicella's songs together. Now she says in an interview in Chi magazine - owned, of course, by Berlusconi - in a final and desperate attempt to save face, that she is still a virgin.

Another way to enter Villa Certosa, to reach the status of butterfly and become part of the great entomologist's collection, is to know the sultan's friends. It's better if they are VIP business men who belong to the strictly judicial circle (the judiciary really brings people together), such as Marcello dell'Utri, who was convicted to nine years for mobster complicity; The boss of the Renault F1 team and off shore antics companion Flavio Briatore (who recommended the British lawyer David Mills, corrupt co-creator of the Fininvest B empire, to Berlusconi), or the complacent Fede Confalonieri, president of Mediaset.

It can also come in handy to know those brilliant and elderly reporters, shining stars in the world of official television, people like Fede (creator of the most surrealistic news show in the continent), or the always complacent Bruno Vespa, capable of interviewing the master 12 times a year and always avoiding the uncomfortable question.

They all represent the essence of Berlusconism-Velinism, and have therefore been visiting the Sardinian house for years. They seek security, companionship, warmth, peace, relaxation and beautiful bodies to mitigate the stressful and overwhelming business of politics, corruption and the always tiresome (for their back that is) antechamber journalism.

There are, of course, intermediate ways, various suppliers, fans of gineceo sports, pandering mothers willing to renovate for free the magician's box of tricks, ministers, vice-ministers and deputy secretaries willing to bring something new to the evenings, that enormous circle formed by the daughters of friends, acquaintances, vassals, employees, the cousin with promising curves of the doorman, the bodyguard or the cook, the carabiniero's niece, the aspiring model who e-mails her photographs to the Palazzo Chigi with her cell phone number written in a font imitating lipstick.

All of Italy is in on it, the whole country knows about it, the problem is everyone talks about it, but nobody tells it like it is. Satraps, emperors, monarchs and commanders have all historically filled their salons with young women, but now people are afraid, the omertá is an essential requisite if the hypocrisy is not to end, information is directly or indirectly controlled by the emperor (institutional advertising, public funds, promises, loans...), whoever fails to toe the line can lose his or her job, the Roman Church must not find out (which is why its criticism never goes beyond calls for sobriety), and on top of it all there is a crisis, and we live in the prototypical subterranean country, that wonderful belpaese that is always proud of its homespun talent for muddling through, "France and Spain don't matter, what matters is mangiare (eating)".

The arrival of television veline to politics, the origin of this moral crisis, is the inevitable consequence of History and the system. Forza Italia has never been a party, but rather a group of tifosi, of employees bossed around by Dell'Ultri who in 1994 hired Publitalia's whole secretarial staff in a hurry in order to fill the lists in time.

Its successor, the People of Libery, is not a party either, but rather a flood of middling advisers, submissive managers and pretty faces with no tradition, ideology or base. Television and propaganda are the only policy; and politics is acted out on television. Italy is still a paradise for those with connections - those who have no friends are orphans - and the great electrical engineer is called Silvio. Silvio aggiustatutto.

Berlusconi is the benefactor; schools and houses are filled to the brim with beautiful Uranites, and Villa Certosa is where they are within range.

Listen to Noemi Letizia's former teacher: "It makes a lot of sense, he will help her, we all benefit from having friends, a doctor to write prescriptions".

Elisa Alloro, one of the veline who has been in the main residence, has published an interesting book this week titled Noi, le ragazze di Silvio. She reveals that she has also called Berlusconi Papi, and not just her, for a long time before Cinderella Noemi appeared in il Cavaliere's life.

"He's a fountain of knowledge", writes the 32 year old velina journalist about the great leader. Born in Reggio Calabria, Alloro participated in the political instruction course for 25 PDL veline, taught with the European elections in mind by, among others, the minister of Foreign Affairs, Franco Frattini, and the vice-president of the European Parliament, Mario Mauro, at the Prime Minister's request.

Hostess Alloro was preselected by il Cavaliere, along with, among others, Eleonora Gaggioli, aspiring actress; Camilla Ferranti, aspiring hostess; Angela Sozio, a Big Brother redhead photographed by Zappadu in 2007 on the premier's lap (along with four others); and Barbara Matera, a participant in the Miss Italia de la Puglia pageant, friend of Doctor Letta, and finally (after Veronica Lario's "I accuse"), the only velina candidate chosen among the 25 pre-candidates.

The first one to call Berlusconi Papi, reveals Alloro, was Renata, a Brazilian velina and a staunch milanista. The name spread like a virus. "And now, many ragazze call him by that name, it's a tradition, perhaps rooted in a tacit understanding, a sort of codename born perhaps of the atavistic fear of being intercepted (by phone taps)".

The 100 page book takes the form of a letter to Veronica Lario, dismisses the "trinkets" accusation and defends the boss: "He is a fountain of wisdom, every minute spent with him is like a divine gift". She writes of meeting Berlusconi in 2004 while working for Mediaset. She had to interview him about the bridge over the Messina Straight, but in the blink of an eye she found herself catapulted to Sardinia, "to a business lunch with professionals from the presidential staff. I was the only woman".

They arrived together from the Roman airport of Ciampino, departure point for all official State trips, aboard the presidential plane; during the trip she found out that Berlusconi knew all about her ("he showed me a fat dossier"), and he made her a job offer that she refused. "He explained to me that he was organizing a task-force made up of 50 young journalists who would work as a liaison press-office between Rome and Brussels. It would be extremely good for my CV, he told me..." .

After lunch, a new flight in the presidential plane to San Siro, where AC Milan was playing. Official motorcade, screaming sirens, and a one more flight to Ciampino.

After leaving Mediaset, she still met with Berlusconi: "Sometimes he has invited me to Villa Certosa, to dinners with dozens of guests". She remembers Noemi vaguely ("we were briefly introduced at a party"). What was impossible to forget, she writes, was the "crazy and ludicrous dance" by the twins from Montenegro, "as the Prime Minister looked on with worry". As well as "other unannounced feminine and masculine visits to his bedroom doors".

That's Italy, as the first lady Veronica Lario has said, not so much disgusted as sick of it, patriotic, revolutionary, like Lysistrata, when se condemns the rot of Berlusconiism-Velinism: "Fathers willing to offer their vestals to the dragon", "unashamedly political and sexist trinkets", a husband and Prime Minister who "frequents minors, and that is not right". Impossible to say more with fewer words.

Il Cavaliere's team is aware of the needs. Journalists who cover the premier's movements say that there is a beautiful young woman in the press team who travels everywhere with him even though she is barely capable of tying her own shoelaces. His publicist, Miti Simonetto, hides the flaws as well as she can and tries to make Caesar seem honest.

There is another mysterious character, a woman in her forties, dark haired, attractive, always in a suit, that Zappadu has often photographed at the Olbia airport. She is Sabina Began (SB), the favorite: the Roman celebrity press calls her the queen bee. On Italy's Liberation Day, April 25th 2008, during the victory celebrations after the elections, Berlusconi, the President of the Senate, Renato Schifani, Apicella and other leaders, were surrounded by a gaggle of shapely women. Don Silvio only had eyes for SB, who had tattooed on her ankle "SB, the encounter that changed my life". As he had her on his knees, and whispered Malafemmena, Berlusconi said: "If there were a photographer here, this picture would be worth 100.000 Euros".

Like Lario has said, the political story in play here goes far beyond the Noemi case, poor Noemi is merely the latest victim of this huge Big Brother. Is Villa Certosa, like the Arabian Nights, a somewhat kitsch luxury bunker where erotic games take place, or Berluscoland, or something worse and more lustful?

Probably neither and all those things at once, answer different Sardinian sources. And Zappadu's photographs introduce us in this underworld. Berluscoland is beautiful, that cannot be denied, although nature in Sardinia is far more rugged and less fake than those postcards filled with manicured lawns, round medicinal herbs gardens and false naghuras towers.

The first thing one notices is the excess. Sixty hectares is a lot of terrain. Especially in the Emerald Coast. It is enough for two private beaches, three artificial lakes, half a dozen pools, the amphitheatre where Apicella (the singer-songwriter for whom Berlusconi writes), the dancers and the flamenco dancers (flamenco fans are still wondering who that intruder is, and what she is doing there) all perform.

On one side of the estate is Country, one of the prime minister's favorite spots, a club with candles, oriental rugs and a private area ironically called the Harem. But candid souls should not worry. None of the thousands who have visited Villa Certosa have ever spoken about sex. There is no sex there. Nothing more than ice cream.

Beppe Severgnini, a columnist for Il Corriere, explains: "Villa Certosa is reaching legendary proportions in national fantasies. The main character's friends only enrich the setting when they try to downplay it". Marcello Dell'Utri: "There's an ice cream parlor. You go and they serve you all the ice cream you want. For free. If you think about it, it's a great find". Flavio Briatore: "There's the volcano game. You talk about this and that, and when the group approaches the lake, Berlusconi acts as if he were worried that Sardinia is a seismic area. And at that particular moment you hear a huge explosion, with flame-like effects...". Sando Bondi, minister of Culture, trying to explain the former Czech premier Topolanek's nudity: "Bah... On the other hand, consider that the villa is a few meters away from the sea. A sea, as you will know, of an absolute beauty".

Dell'Utri has been unable to deny that, indeed, apart from the ice cream and the pizza, the estate is always filled with beautiful young women, walking around and bathing, taking showers and exhibiting themselves.

The most complicated thing for Berlusconi won't be explaining the photographs, which he has already defined as "useless". The problem is if there are other, more compromising ones. "Berlusconi knows there is a mole in Villa Certosa. Someone from inside has betrayed him, but he doesn't know who it is", explains Marco Mostallino, a local journalist. "Berlusconi must think it's one of the security guards. It is not by coincidence that he has accused his wife, through his brother's newspaper, of having an affair with her bodyguard".

Villa Certosa is supervised round the clock like a fortress by the military and carabinieri. There are also private guards and others from other places. The history of security in the Emerald Coast is linked to the Aga Khan, the first tourism entrepreneur in Sardinia, he started with vigilantes. "The Aga Khan hired all available men, and many of them had a criminal record", Mostallino says.

A few years later, Berlusconi arrived on the island. "He came with his brother Paolo in 1981 or 1982", recalls the Sardinian politician. "His plan was to build two million cubic meters over the sea, in a 200 hectare estate to the South of Olbia, between Le Saline and Capo Cerasso. In order to overwhelm, he came with enormous books which according to him included an estimate of the economic impact. He travelled with a retinue of architects, engineers, fiscal advisers, economists. It took ten years for the project to get the green light, and he was only allowed a quarter of the original extension, in the mountain, far from the sea. But when it was approved, he didn't have the money. It was 1993 and he immediately went into politics".

Silvio and Paolo built the villa during the early 90s. Eventually, they turned it into a house worthy of s James Bond film. The ironic Severgnini has written in Il Corriere della Sera that one day someone will write the story of Villa Certosa: "The cynicism of Italian elasticity would allow most, if not everything, to be told. The final obstacle is official coherence. Politicians, even those with fewer prejudices, are not yet ready to admit what they do, fearing that someone will compare it with what they say".

(article published in Spanish, English and Italian for the Sunday Edition of "El Pais" June 7th less than 48 hours after Berlusconi the lecher harem pimp began his lawsuit for defamation against that newspaper and sought damages for the percieved slur on his character)

author by prurience - (iosaf)publication date Mon May 10, 2010 23:54author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Now that's an awful lot of money in many person's books especially when you consider she's also holding onto a piece of prime villa palacio real estate as well.

I bet his other women & girlies, men and well "people" never came in so expensive.

http://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2010/05/10/news/accord...7482/

Number of comments per page
  
 
© 2001-2024 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy